


In a Quiet Wood

by JadeLight



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Camping, F/M, Lost in the Woods
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:53:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26945500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeLight/pseuds/JadeLight
Summary: City girl Rey goes camping with her friends and gets lost in the woods, luckily she gets found by mountain man Ben.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 6
Kudos: 52
Collections: Space Cafe 2020 Exchange





	In a Quiet Wood

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tmwillson3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tmwillson3/gifts).



> Theresa, I'm so sorry this is late, but I think you'll know why (covid is a biiiiitch).
> 
> Many many thanks to Ksco for her invaluable beta skills (legit, she's the best).

With a grumbled curse Rey picked herself up off of the forest floor and glared down at the root that had tripped her. 

“‘Let’s go camping,’ they said. ‘It’ll be fun,’ they said,” Rey quietly complained, looking around to see if she recognized any landmarks. “Why do people even want to pretend to be homeless? We all have perfectly good apartments in the city, but noooo, Rose and Finn just _had_ to talk me into _camping_.”

With a sigh, Rey sat at the base of a tree and dropped her head into her hands. It was nearly dusk, and she was lost in the woods. If there was a person less qualified to keep themselves alive in a forest, she didn’t know them. The foster care families she lived with while growing up didn’t do things like camping, or if they did, they’d leave her with a relative or family friend and go on vacation without her. 

Being left behind for camping trips had never particularly bothered her. It was when they’d gone to the beach, or, once, to EuroDisney, that had stung. It was always the same reason too. She didn’t warrant the cost of a ticket to them. Camping though? When it was camping, she was perfectly fine to be left at home. She regretted it a bit now, lost in a forest with no idea how to find her way out, or build a fire, or signal planes, or whatever else you were supposed to do when lost in the woods.

But Rose _loved_ camping, Finn loved what Rose loved, and Poe was always down for an adventure. And, since Rey loved the lot of them, she let them talk her into things outside of her comfort zone. Her comfort zone being her apartment in the city, her office in the city, and other places _in the city_. She was a city person, dammit. If you got lost and fell and smashed your phone _in the city,_ you could just ask someone on the street to borrow theirs. Alternatively, you could just, you know, use the city’s grid system to find your way around. When you get lost and fell and smashed your phone in the woods, you were just fucked.

“I’m so fucking fucked,” Rey muttered to herself before shouting, “and everything here fucking sucks!”

“That’s your opinion, but I’d disagree.”

Rey started at the deep voice coming from seemingly out of nowhere. She jumped up from the ground and looked around, her eyes falling on a tall man with dark brown hair and a prominent nose.

“Oh thank god, you’re a person.”

The man nodded, before deadpanning, “Last I checked. And since you just scared off any game within a mile of here, I doubt we’ll see any animals anytime soon.”

As he said this, Rey noticed a bow and a quiver of arrows slung around his back and a knife on his belt. She backed up a step as she realized he was armed and a stranger, and she was lost in the woods entirely alone with him. Shit.

“Could you show me the way back to the Yavin campground?” Rey asked, hoping he’d heard of it.

The man stared down at her impassively, seeming to consider her and her request. “It’s at least a four mile hike through the woods to the east of here, and it’ll be pitch black long before we make it there.”

Rey deflated and silently cursed camping again. “Do you have a car nearby? Or a phone I could use?”

“I don’t have a use for a cell phone, and my truck is currently out of commission.”

“I might be able to help with that,” Rey said. “I have a lot of experience working on cars.”

The man shook his head and replied, “It needs a radiator that had to be special ordered. It’ll be here in a day or two.” He paused for a moment, then continued, “You could come back to my cabin for the night. It’s only the one room so there’s not a lot of privacy, but it’s warm at least. It’s going to get very cold out here overnight if you don’t have any gear.”

Rey bit her lower lip and tried to decide what to do. On the one hand, she could go to the home of a complete stranger, a very large, very male, and very handsome stranger at that, or she could huddle in the woods and hope she didn’t freeze to death or get eaten by wild animals. It really wasn’t much of a choice.

“If you wouldn’t mind, I’d appreciate that. Freezing to death seems sub-optimal compared to being murdered in a kind stranger’s home. I’m Rey, by the way.”

She held out her hand to him and waited for him to shake it. After what felt like a very long time he took her hand in his and gave it a cursory shake before dropping it. Rey couldn’t help feeling slightly offended at how little he seemed to want to touch her. She might not look her best right now (apparently she’d hiked at least four miles through the woods), but it wasn’t like she was diseased or something.

“Ben Solo. Come this way.”

With that he abruptly turned and headed off. Rey followed, doing her best not to trip on the many tree roots that seemed determined to catch her feet, especially since her eyes kept straying to the very nice shape of Ben’s ass in his snug jeans. Damn, it’d been a while since she got any if she was ogling a stranger’s ass. Rey cursed under her breath and sped up as she realized the ass was getting farther away. For such a large man, Ben Solo certainly made his way swiftly and quietly through the trees, and Rey felt a bit of jealousy at his easy grace.

After twenty minutes of hiking, Rey was huffing from trying to keep up with Ben’s long strides, and since he hadn’t looked back once to check on her, she couldn’t help trying to make at least _some_ conversation. “So, uh, how far is it to your cabin?”

Ben slowed to a stop and glanced back at her. “It’s about five more minutes. Do you need us to slow down?”

Rey swallowed through a dry throat and bent to brace herself on her knees. “That, uh, might be good. I’ve been out here for a few hours and I’m pretty tired and thirsty. Sorry.”

Ben’s eyes widened and he pulled his quiver off his back. “I’m sorry, I didn’t even consider that you might be hungry or thirsty. Here.”

He handed her a reusable bottle that he pulled from the quiver and despite her misgivings about accepting a drink from a stranger (ironically, she would never do such a thing in a bar in the city), she drank deeply from it without a word, happy to find it was delightfully cold water.

“Oh my god, thank you so much. I literally haven’t had a drop to drink in hours,” with that she finished off the bottle and handed it back to him with a sheepish smile. “Sorry.”

“It’s no problem,” Ben said quietly, his eyes gliding over her figure and making her shiver. “There’s plenty more at my cabin, and some food. You ready to start again?”

Rey nodded and Ben pressed his lips together and started moving again, but Rey noticed his strides were no longer quite as long, and the way he turned his head slightly made her feel like he was listening for how close she was. Rey’s heart warmed a little at the apparent concern he now displayed. 

With a shake of her head to clear her thoughts and a firm reminder to herself that he was a _stranger_ , Rey hurried after the quiet man.

Maybe she wouldn’t die alone in the woods tonight after all.


End file.
